A couple of weeks ago the weather started to change; it suddenly got a lot colder particularly of a night time and in the mornings coupled with this was an increase in how lovely and damp everything was, Autumn had arrived, or as I prefer to call it Arthritis season.

I happen to love Autumn and Winter, they just don’t love me, in particular they don’t love my hands and wrists, even now at the beginning of October I am suffering with a lot of stiffness in my hands, particularly in the mornings.

So it is time for me to break out my selection of homemade remedies to help ease things along a bit.

Here are a couple of things that have worked for me in the past and might well work for you. Please bear in mind that I do not have rheumatoid arthritis and can’t vouch for how efficient or not these remedies are in treating it.

Ginger – A Chinese friend of mine back in the UK always swore by ginger as being the best medicine that he knew of for helping with arthritis as far as I could gather ginger is a strong antioxidant and therefore able to help prevent breakdown of cartilage.

He used to steep a one inch piece of root ginger in boiling water for about 15/20 minutes and drink it as a tea each morning, however if the idea of ginger tea doesn’t appeal then you could just try and incorporate it into your daily diet. If you cant get fresh ginger then 3/4 tsp of dried ginger would be the equivalent of a 1 inch segment.

Wolfs bane/Arnica – I love Wolfsbane as it is useful for so many things not the least of which is helping to remove the aches and pains associated with arthritis.

Wolfsbane is best used as an oil or liniment applied to unbroken skin, you should apply a few drops to the affected area and then massage it into the skin working in the direction away from the heart. Please be aware that Wolfsbane is incredibly toxic and is not to be taken orally under any circumstance.

Click here for a great Wolfsbane and Comfrey liniment that is also very good at reducing swelling and bruising.

Bay Laurel/Laurus Nobilis– Bay Laurel make a great alternative to commercially available anti-inflammatories. Bay has been used for centuries in traditional folk medicine and a lot of people claim to have had great success in treating Osteoarthritis with Bay Laurel.

As with the ginger the best way to get the benefits of bay laurel is in an infusion; take 5 to 8 bay laurel leaves and steep them in 250ml of water for 30 mins. Strain the infusion and drink twicely for a month.

A lot of people notice a reduction in symptoms of Arthritis within a week and there are reports of many people having complete relief inside of a month.

I would avoid taking this bay infusion if you are pregnant as bay has been used in the past to promote abortion.

Dit Da Jow is a traditional liniment from China that has long been used to treat a whole range of different ailments from bruises and swelling through to rheumatism and arthritis.

However in the west it has commonly been constrained to martial arts circles where practitioners have used it to treat injuries suffered in training and also in conjunction with certain training methods such as Iron fist or Iron palm from Kung Fu which aims to toughen up the skin on the knuckles, fingers and palms of the hands.

I have always sworn by it and have used it for years both when I was a practicing martial arts instructor and for my own arthritis and joint problems, you can sometimes buy this from shops but the potency of it is somewhat dubious at the best of times and besides it is far cheaper and more interesting to make your own, this is a slightly non-traditional recipe using herbs that are more readily available in the west however it it has always worked perfectly well for me and my own instructor has been using it for over 40 years and wont touch anything else.

If you are lucky enough to live in a rural area than most of what you need can be gathered quite easilly if not you might have to go through a herbalist or catalogue to get hold of what you need, if you find that you are going to be using it regularly you might want to start growing some of the more hard to find items.

Here is what you need to make the Jow

Arnica blossoms

Comfrey

Blessed Thistle

Goldenseal root

Ginger root

Myrrh

Sasparilla root

Witch Hazel

Stinging Nettle

St. John’s Wort

Wintergreen oil

Camomile

Fenugreek

Rubbing alcohol

Use equal proportions of all the items listed, by weight. You can meaure them out on a small kitchen scale.

Grind the herbs in a mortar & pestle and place them into a glass jar. Add in the rubbing alcohol, if for some reason you cant get hold of rubbing alcohol you can use Vodka.

Next you need to add in the herbs I use 4 ounces of dried herbs to one pint of alcohol (or equivalent proportions). Seal the jar tightly and leave it in a cool dark place .

Allow the infusion to work for two weeks; once or twice a day, swirl the liquid gently through the herbal mash. After two weeks, strain off the liquid and discard the herbal residue.

This tincture can be applied as is to swollen or bruised areas, or can be mixed with a thickener (like lanolin or safflower oil) and a hardener (like beeswax) to make an ointment.

A big part of the benefit from using this or any other tincture for that matter is the rubbing motion that you use when applying it, make sure that you really work it in well and that the direction that you rub in is away from the heart, this will help aid blood flow to the damaged or sore area helping to aid recovery